Why EA's FIFA is very popular?

Ever given a thought to this -> EA Sports FIFA franchise has sold over 100 million copies. This along with Need for Speed is EA sports’ maximum sold games. The next in the list is Madden NFL at 85 million. NBA has sold only 35 million. Cricket is nowhere in the picture.

The question I wish to raise here is FIFA is selling like hot cakes. True, football is game with global fan following and probably the maximum watched too. But consider this Pro Evolution Soccer has sold 69 million copies worldwide. In spite of such heavy competition how does FIFA manage this?

Was a huge hit. Sold 2.6 Million copies in the opening week

Slightly digressing from the topic, basketball too is a global game but definitely not as popular as football. Despite worldwide NBA fan following it has managed to sell only 35 million copies. NBA 2k too has sold only 6 million copies. So competition is definitely not an issue for NBA. But why is the number less?

Let us try to see why FIFA is such a runaway success. One unique aspect about football is it has a strong presence at club level as well as at international level. If you take cricket, it’s a nation’s game. Club level cricket is limited to county cricket and to an extent IPL now. Basketball has NBA, but at international level it is sporadic.

Another aspect of football is when you tell a name like Lionel Messi, its Barcelona that comes to our mind first. Argentina comes next. In FIFA you have the chance to sign up Messi for another club and see how well he plays. You could make a team with your choice of players and still feel good about it. What I mean is in cricket you do not have the transfer option. Assuming transfer option is available how many of us would transfer Sachin Tendulkar to Kochi Tuskers. Cricket is still popular as a nation sport. In NBA transfers make more sense and present the gamers interesting scenarios.

If you look at the number of teams there in FIFA, it is much more than any other game. You have the English Premier League, Spanish League and Italian League which majority of the fans follow. Then you have the German League, Dutch League and French League which too have lot of fan following. You are exposed to lot many players than any other game. You could try winning the different leagues. NBA is just one league. Players remain same. Cricket fails miserably in variety of games offered.

NBA has enjoyed reasonable popularity

One more major difference between cricket and the rest is the skill level of player. In FIFA a player rated 85 and someone rated 75 have different skill levels. Lebron James definitely has a higher chance of shooting a basket than Lamar Odom. The difference is very much noticeable in the game play. In cricket though you have different ratings, how this difference is manifested in the game is not as much as FIFA or NBA.

The licensing problem can be clearly seen

The advent of gaming consoles too is a factor why cricket sales did not pick up. Since 2007, EA has quit developing cricket. There has only been some additions to the existing game. India is the nation with maximum cricket crazy population and gaming consoles became popular in India around the same time.

Some of the other small factors include licensing. FIFA has had license for using the real names of players. Cricket on the other hand had problems with licensing. Though they had the full license for some time by 2007 they had rights from only 4 cricket boards. This meant no using of real names in the game. (This could be edited by the user though)

FIFA has proven to be the money maker for EA in its sporting segment. And this can be assigned to its huge global popularity. Let us hope EA comes out with a new version of cricket soon.